14 October 2012

A brave experiment

The last blog entry covered the early period of operation of diesel rail cars on the
Coonamble branch line, from 1934. This
post will cover the latter period of rail car operation, from 1957 to the
demise of rail passenger services on the line in 1975.

The
modernisation of NSW rail operations in the 1950s resulted in the Railway
Commissioners determining that air-conditioned express passenger trains were
needed for branch line operations. Mr
Peter Neve’s article in the October 2012 Australian Railway History referred to in my previous blog post gives an authoritative
explanation of the planning for, construction and introduction of the 900 class
diesel rail cars – otherwise known as DEB sets.
Included in this article is a good description of their early operation
on the Coonamble line; well worth a read.

As
is made clear in the Australian Railway
History article, it was a courageous decision of the Commissioners to build
a fleet of new air-conditioned express rail cars, replete with onboard buffet
service, for branch line service in
the face of falling passenger patronage and competing demands for scarce
capital resources.

One
could conceive of the traditionally conservative railway administration
investing in rail cars of this type for mainline services, but instead they
were introduced on the (then) quiet north coast line, the Canberra-Cooma branch
and in the west of the State. It was
only in the 1960s, when the competition against road and air passenger transport
had been well and truly lost, that these rail cars then saw extensive mainline
service on NSW trunk routes.

Nonetheless,
in December 1957 the Far West Express
service commenced on the Coonamble line using 900 class DEB rail cars. Initially, the Far West Express ran to Coonamble only on Tuesdays, as it ran to
Cobar on Thursdays, and Bourke on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays By 1965, the Far West Express ran twice weekly to Coonamble – on Tuesdays and
Saturdays. On Mondays, Thursdays and
Fridays, a 600/700 diesel car set operated an un-named service.

Three
TP parcels vans were specially constructed for use on the Far West Express service, using materials similar to those used for
the construction of the rail cars.
However, unlike the rest of the train these parcels vans would commence
their journey from Central attached to the Coonamble
Mail. At Dubbo the Mail would
terminate, and the TP van would then be attached to the rear of the DEB
set.

While
not unique to use on the Far West Express,
the inclusion of a TBR trailer carriage meant that passengers on the service
could access onboard buffet facilities throughout the journey.

A
typical consist of the Far West Express
in the 1950s and 1960s involved a PF economy class car (conveying a maximum of
39 passengers), a TBR first class/buffet car (with seating for 36), a second PF
car and a TP trailer. Thus a total of
114 seats were available for passengers on each service.

Depending
upon the anticipated passenger loading, the Far
West Express would operate as either a three or four car set, plus the
trailer van. When a fourth passenger
carriage was required, a specially-constructed TC composite carriage would be
inserted into the DEB set. As noted in
the Australian Railway History
article, this carriage had a capacity to seat up to 24 passengers in first
class and 31 passengers in second class. This fourth carriage increased the
total passenger loading to 169 passengers – a 48 per cent increase over a three
car set.

The
following photograph shows a ‘three car’ Express
leaving Eumungerie in the morning for the run to Coonamble. While I am truly appreciative of the
photographer making the effort to get out of bed to take this shot, I do wish
they had arisen 5 minutes earlier so as to position themselves on the eastern
side of the track!

Another
photograph of the morning service was taken several years later, and this time
the photographer (believed to be the same individual) did rise in time to get
to the sunny side of the track… or perhaps the Express was five minutes late
that day?

The
third photograph of this series dates from the late 1960s and was likely taken
during school holidays as it shows a
four car DEB set (plus TP van) in the service.

There
are two further things to note about this photograph; first, its in black and
white so please do not adjust your monitor.
Second, the odd telegraphic and signal pole appears between the train
and the camera. When questioned about a
similar photographic composition years ago, the photographer involved indicated
that he was actually photographing the poles and the train was simply in the
background.

There
was one significant change to the composition of the Far West Express during this time. As explained in the Australian Railway History article in
detail, the original TP trailer cars did not handle the boisterous shunting
techniques practiced by the shunters at Sydney Steam Terminal station during
the 1950s.

In
order to provide a more robust parcels van which could withstand the rigours of
big town shunting, the Railways converted three existing EHO passenger guards
vans into ETP trailer cars from 1958 onwards.
The next (deteriorating slide) photograph shows a three car Far West Express on a down service in
the 1960s, replete with an ETP trailer.

The
Far West Express operated until the
cessation of passenger services on the line, alongside the less illustrious 600
class cousins. Thus, for a greater part
of the post-war period, a combination of rail car services operated the
majority of passenger services to Eumungerie and beyond.

In
the mid-1970s the NSW railway administration made another radical decision,
which was to just give up the fight against road and air passenger transport. This decision was taken in a global sense
only, as there was no effective road or air competition to the rail cars
trundling along the Coonamble branch line.

That is, there was no fleet of Greyhound buses plying the Newell Highway
and no DC3s humming overhead in the clouds above Coonamble, Gulargambone,
Gilgandra or Eumungerie in direct competition to Far West Express. In short,
the abandonment of rail passenger services on the Coonamble branch line was a
simple abandonment of a necessary public service for any person who did not
have access to a private motor vehicle.

In
every sense it was a failure of government, and no amount of
Countrylink-branded coaches (which ignore the intermediate villages in any
event) can make up for the rash decision in the mid-1970s not to attack the
problem of rising service costs in a more constructive way - to compete on more than just price. The cost of this failure of failure can be
seen to this day – Gilgandra, Gulargambone and
Coonamble are shadows of their former townships and several intermediate villages have been
obliterated.

The very point of the quality facilities in the DEB set was to provide an affordable option to road travel on the pioneer lines. Instead of just withdrawing to compete on several large trunk routes, the Far West Express took competition to the extremities of the rail system. SO perhaps more than perhaps any other decision since 1945, the removal of rail passenger services in the mid-1970s from these sorts of lines sealed the fate of rail passenger transport in this State. But enough of this soap-boxing, time for another photograph or two.

And this time our photographer turned around! So, our final shot is of the much-missed Far West Express heading north to Coonamble. Enjoy!